Handwriting at the end? Or at the beginning?
In the film adaptation of Choderles de Laclos' epistolary novel "Dangerous Liaisons," there is a particularly beautiful scene in which the villainous Vicomte de Valmont seduces his young lover into writing a hypocritically yearning letter to her fiancé. Since they are in bed at the time, it conveniently serves as a writing surface for this letter.
Handwriting is also sensual.
One thing is clear: this situation loses much of its appeal when you imagine her writing the love letter on a laptop keyboard… But however strange the comparison may be, it beautifully summarizes many of the things that distinguish handwriting from typing.
Starting with the feel. Guiding a fountain pen or nib, even a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen, across paper – even without a bare back as a writing surface – is a far more direct and sensual experience than staring at a monitor and letting your fingers hop across a computer keyboard. The hand glides over the paper, forming curves, dots, and arcs; the text flows onto the page.
And just as writing is different, so too is thinking. Those who write by hand approach their task differently. Quickly deleting and pasting is impossible, as are spontaneous deletions or corrections; even the liberal use of drag-and-drop from other sources on the internet suddenly becomes rather difficult. Those who write by hand do so more consciously in many respects.
If he's learned it. Because with the increasing prevalence of computers in the office, at home, and also in schools, the necessity and value of handwriting are being questioned more and more. The debate is fierce. Educators and neuroscientists, education policymakers, and ultimately parents worldwide are arguing about the right approach.
And scientific studies suggest that learning fluent handwriting has a positive effect on a child's development.
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- As you can see: handwriting is good for the brain.
Nevertheless, in many primary schools, children first learn print letters, with the obvious argument that they will only ever use print letters later on, so why should they need to write fluently? Only after two or three years are they rather half-heartedly taught a kind of cursive script, which can vary (and also vary in practicality) from state to state, sometimes even from school to school.
And in the process, a diverse sensory experience is lost, which is difficult to make up for later…
Conclusion: The more the handwriting seems to be at the end, the clearer it becomes that it must be at the very beginning.